Copy the code below to embed the WBUR audio player on your site

This Screen grab from the website WhiteHouse.gov taken Friday April 18, 2014 shows the screen explaining a new Obama administration privacy policy released Friday explaining how the government will gather the user data of online visitors to WhiteHouse.gov, mobile apps and social media sites, and it clarifies that online comments, whether tirades or tributes, are in the open domain. (AP)

Big Data and intelligence. That’s not just an NSA issue. Private companies have been quietly storing your personal information too. And it isn’t just what you are searching for on the Web or what you buy. There are operations trolling Twitter for your product preferences. Others capturing your license number . A White House report warns about private data collection run amok. And officials are calling for new regulations to govern how private companies use your data. This hour On Point: Who’s vacuuming up your data, and why.

Todd Hodnett, founder and chairman of the Digital Recognition Network.

From The Reading List

New York Times: In Surveillance Debate, White House Turns Its Focus to Silicon Valley — "At their core, the questions about the N.S.A. are strikingly similar to those about how Google, Yahoo, Facebook and thousands of application makers crunch their numbers. The difference is over the question of how far the government will go to restrain the growth of its own post-Sept. 11 abilities, and whether it will decide the time has come to intrude on what private industry collects, in the name of protecting privacy or preventing new forms of discrimination."

Los Angeles Times: Ownership of personal data still appears up for grabs — "While the report addresses the ease with which people's information can be collected, crunched and put to use, it fails to adequately convey the sense of violation that comes with businesses and government officials knowing your habits, behavior and activities. Privacy advocates welcomed the administration's attention to these issues but said the report didn't go far enough in keeping people's personal data under wraps."

Washington Post: White House releases big data and privacy report — "Two years ago, the president called for a consumer data 'bill of rights,' that would protect consumers when companies collected data about their activities. But the subsequent release of classified information by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden complicated that effort, which never gained traction on Capitol Hill. In Thursday's report, the panel recommended that the bill of rights proposal be revived and advanced."